Is anyone aware of a good cheap coil option? My wires are crusty and plug caps are a loose fit. I went to remove the plug wires, but they are molded into the coils. I've got a set of airhead Bosch coils, not sure of they are a match ohms wise. Any help appreciated.

This post is titled priorities, because it always seems like I'm off on some tangent that doesn't relate to vintage dirt racing on a 350 Honda Twin. Two weeks ago, my daughter in the Air Force announced she was getting married during her Christmas leave, to her fiance....in Houston. Yikes. So with three weeks notice we are gearing up to fly to Texas and helping in any way possible to set up the wedding and make it all work out, and of course we will. As is typical, I'm juggling my duties as a parent, grandparent ( I have 4 grand-kids by my two other children) and of course a full time job, a shop with a bike being prepped for the 2013 MK1, my TTR250 prep for the D100 and of course the old SL350 that doesn't get half the attention I'd like to lavish upon it. Thus the title priorities, I do know how blessed I am, just saying that there is a lot competition for every waking hour.

So this weekend (my last chance to do anything in the shop for a few weeks) I had three projects to prioritze; First was our recently purchased older Motor Home (this will be our "adventure vehicle" until one of us wins the lottery and we can buy a proper UniMog!), with a leaky roof and in temporary dry storage so this can be addressed. Second is the TTR250 because if I don't start riding pretty darn soon, I won't be worth a lick when it is time to race. In addition to the D100 on April 6, I've told Luke I'd like to hit at least one, maybe two OMRA events prior to the D100. Third was to try and squeeze some time in on the SL350, and to do all of these things while also working in going to a basketball game my oldest grandson was playing in. Whew!

Working on the Motor Home roof, got one coat on all seams, need to do two more before we pull it out of storage;

And the new (1986) race support vehicle, aka "Minnie Winnie" is progressing steadily, although I'm pretty sure we're going to have the pull the furnace to repair, but that is another story. Anyhow, with all these projects slowly coming together and the majority of my honey-do's somewhat under control, I had a whole day to devote just to the old SL350.

This morning;

Decided to use the tensioner arm on the left for the Polyamide sprocket and wheel upgrade, as the right hand one was in pretty good shape and can be used again on a non performance application;

Drilling out original rivet that holds tensioner wheel in place;

The center bushing from the original wheel must be used in the new wheel, note that the oil passages need to be aligned for proper lubrication of the needle bearing;

Magic marker used to mark where oil passages line up;

Swedged the rivet with tapered punch and then finished off with a brass drift;

Cylinder cleaned and ready for honing;

Cross hatch;

Ring kit came from Greece and are universal 68mm, which require a lot of filing to work in 67mm bores. Because the quality of the rings is completely unknown, I opted for a pretty generous ring end gap. Starting from the top ring at .016, then the second ring at .12 and the oil ring at .010. The rings have no markings of any kind and the compression rings were completely symetrical, so without any position indicators, I just have to hope that they are going to work. Note: these were the ONLY rings I could find that were even close to fitting the antique PowRoll big bore kit.

All parts laid out: cleaned, honed, filed, etc. and ready for assembly (the long slender black lines to the left of the rings are the inner springs for the oil control rings, those had to be shortened as well);

Heat gun was used to warm pistons for installation of wrist pins;

First piston on, I quickly realized it would be a good idea to install the inner wrist pin clips before putting the pistons on the rods;

Pistons and rings on and rebuilt tensioner in place, ready for cylinder;

Note to self; no more multi-cylinder ring installations without proper ring compressors. Doing this alone and without the right tools was no fun and was lucky no rings were broken. Whew!

Had figured on getting further then this today, but couldn't quit untiI the trick LameCo head was set in place, just to see how it looked. Yeah Baby!!!

One more shop session should have the motor buttoned up and then it will be on to the chassis. My old crew chief Randy has volunteered (insisted actually) to paint the frame, fuel tank and side covers, and if his past work is any indicator, it should look pretty sharp. Here is the my old 750 Norton that Randy helped build in 1975, he did all the paint and trim work on it;

When I left off on the motor, the cylinder was installed, but the head, rocker box and cover were just mocked into place;

After taking it back down to the cylinder and carefully rechecking all details, reassembled and used spray copper-coat on all gaskets. For cam installation I wanted the head and cylinder firmly in place, so used the outer perimeter studs and nuts to hold them down. With head and rocker box installed, time to slip the cam into place, but first the sprocket has to be slipped into place (the t-handle is there just in case I dropped the chain before getting it wrapped around the sprocket);

Now the cam, but which one? Because these motors were already a hodge-podge of parts, a little measuring might reveal one of the cams with a little more lift;

Cam #1 @ 1.44"

Cam #2 @ 1.54", bingo!

Ruh Roh! The bigger fatter camshaft did not want to go throught the sprocket without hanging up on the bottom of the rocker box. After several tries and even a rest break, I decided to try Cam #1. It went in like a hot knife through warm butter. Grrrrr. So here is where is I stopped for the day;

At this point I looked at the cam sprockets to see if one of them had a bigger opening then the other, but on first glance they appear the same, and also have the same part number. I did a bit of reading on the internet and there is some chatter about high lift cams requiring different sprockets, so I'll have to explore that option. I also considered grinding a small relief in the bottom of the rocker box to allow the cam snout to pass, but first I'll check in with CB350 racing guru Mr Fast and see what advice he might have.

"Talked to Owen and as I suspected he had to auger out the opening where you insert the cam into the rocker box to get the high lift cam to fit. Interestingly, after inserting the cam he had to grind down a ridge in the rocker box so the cam could spin! Make sure yours will turn over after you get it fitted."

After receiving the information from Mr Fast, I did some further research on the inter-web and came up with this build thread, from another CB350 roadracer;

"You will need to clean out the entrance for the cam in the cam box so the redesigned cam lobes will fit. You will also need to clean the ridges off the cam box floor and enlarge the opening in the cam sprocket. That's all you need to do fit the new cam."

Armed with the knowledge that grinding is the accepted pratice to get the larger cam installed, I pulled the rocker box off and set to work. First marking the offending areas (Note: as Mr Fast warned, there were witness marks where the large cam had been rubbing on the floor of the rocker box). So not only would material need to be removed from the vertical ridge to allow the cam to slide thru, but also from the ribbing on the floor;

Dremel;

Removed just enough material to get the job done;

Now the cam fits;

Checking thru two sets of rocker arms, not one of them had the 286 casting number that many say are correct for the larger cam, so will be doing more research before proceeding. Still it was sure nice to see the cam sitting in place!